Probing the recreational home –The cultural probe as a communicative tool for researcher and user

How can qualitative, ethnographic and emotional aspects from probe users be mapped at the same time as they get something meaningful in return? The emphasis is here on intellectual rewards during probe work rather than future good designs that in a long term perspective can be beneficial for the probe user. This case study has elaborated the traditional use of cultural probes [1] with a selection of ten families with small children in the Öresund region. The idea was to evoke thoughts about recreation and living for the probe users while providing information and inspiration to the scientist. This has been achieved partly through the use of collages. The mixed compositions of images and quotations in the collages are thought to give a quick and effective overview over both what thoughts the probe users have about their home life and how they live. The collages have then been handled over to the probe users as a platform for further discussions. The probes ability to work as something enriching and beneficial to the probe users have been further elaborated in a new way

Elusive intangibles : Exploring the experience of authenticity in product development

When consumers buy a new product, they have expectations about what that product will deliver. The consumer’s rational reasoning may try to ascertain whether the technical performance of the product will be fulfilled. Nevertheless, the final word is often subjective. Does it feel right? Is the product attractive, is it worth paying that much for? It is well established that human perception is highly subjective and elusive in nature. Although reason might tell us to go for the “sensible” choice, if the product is not experienced as attractive or exciting enough, the choice might go to something else or lead to dissatisfaction with the chosen product. This is why intangible experiences are important to consider when developing highly valued consumer products.The research in this thesis represents a journey. Along its path, it has been studied how one might understand, elicit and capture intangible product value. How are intangibles relevant to industry, and how might they support product development in the quest for developing products that are highly valued on the market? The initial research, when this thesis began, was concerned with a new way to elicit, capture and assess this type of value. The value of this research lies in the development and validation of a new type of internet tool for the elicitation and assessment of product intangibles that are intended to capture consumer response in a different way from traditional internet tools for product assessment. The latter and greater part of this research has attempted to describe what intangibles are, how professionals talk about them, and what significance they have for product value and product development. What type of value are product developers trying to integrate into the products they develop, and how do they reason? This research has particularly focused on describing and understanding the intangible quality of product and brand authenticity. One contribution of this thesis is its review of how authenticity is described by literature in the fields of product development, branding and marketing management. Thus, it describes the ongoing debate on authenticity as a leading determinant of market value. However, it remains unclear what saying that a product or a brand is authentic means within product development. This has been analysed in this thesis. The thesis also gives an account of what qualities different professions within product development and industrial design have found to be important when developing highly valued consumer products. This thesis also makes a contribution by proposing a new, multidimensional construct for authenticity that explains how market value relates to authenticity. This multidimensional construct of authenticity is a framework that explains how different fields related to product development may be used for companies in creating and maintaining product offerings with a high market value

Cultural probes

How can qualitative and emotional aspects from users be mapped at the same time as they get something meaningful in return? This case study has developed the use of cultural probes [1] with a selection of ten families with small children in the Öresund region. The idea was to evoke thoughts about recreation and living for the probe users while providing information and inspiration to the scientist. This has been achieved through the use of collage. The mixed compositions of images and quotations in the collages are thought to give a quick and effective overview over both what thoughts the probe users have about their home life and how they live. The collages have then been handled over to the probe users as a platform for further discussions. The probes ability to work as something enriching and beneficial to the probe users have been further developed in a new way

Authenticity in Product Development

We are told that ‘authenticity’ is what todays customers want. In this study, industrial designers have been interviewed about authenticity. Understanding the concept of authenticity, from a product development and industrial design point of view, is seen as an important way to understand how value, relevant to customers and consumers, may be added to products. This paper concludes that the nebulousness of the concept of authenticity renders it ineffective as a standalone tool for developing new products. Once on the market authenticity can, however, be seen as a factor that may determine the success or failure of a product. Authenticity may possibly not be a guarantee determinant of market success. However, it may be an analytical tool in determining market failure in retrospect. No product developer may ever rely on a given recipe that will always deliver ‘authenticity’ to the market. But if market and customer input is valid and reliable in the early research phase of the development of a product, then designers may be more inclined to use authenticity as an effective design influencer

Towards Remote Assessment of User Experiences of Visual Product Representations

Understanding consumer experiences of products is becoming increasingly important for producers acting on the global market. This paper presents a pilot study done as part of the development of a VIPET (Visual Internet Product Experience Tool), a future tool for remote user assessment of product experiences. The aim of the tool is to provide users with a convenient and intuitive approach to assess visual representations of products by allowing respondents to place visual representations of products in the form of images in relation to each other on a type of bipolar visual analogue scales in the form of 2x2 charts. The purpose of the study was to evaluate a prototype version of the visual interface of the tool using international respondents. The prototype tool was emailed to respondents in five countries, asking them to assess an everyday type of product, food packaging containers, against six parameters, measuring types of perceptual experience. The results of the study indicate that remote assessment of visual representations of products using a tool of this type is a promising approach. Even though some test results are presented the major interest of this paper is not in the assessments of the specific products as such, but rather the characteristics and quality of the assessment method itself and the implications for the development of a tool for assessing consumer experiences

Exploring emotions for design of your future chair

The User Compass Chart (UCC) was used for eliciting middle-age subjects’ experiences of 33 photo-represented easy chairs, including consumer products and chairs designed for nursing-homes as well as institutions in general. The chairs were represented in black and white photos measuring 50 x 50 mm. The vectors used in the chart were most inviting - most repellent and most homelike- most nursing-home like associating adjectives. Subjects were asked to position each representation on the chart, according to hers/his emotional experiences and to think-aloud. When the UCC was complete the subject had the possibility to adjust the positions of the representations. The experiments were recorded with video and digital camera. Key-sentences were transcribed. The positions of all subjects’ markers were summarised in “flag diagrams” for each represented chair and frequencies were compared of different products in different sectors. Key sentences of significant products and sectors were classified according to design elements (defined elements or whole body) and products values (functional and ergonomic or appearance and image). Some chairs were identified as more significant (homelike and inviting, institutional and inviting, institutional and repellent). The UCC proved to be a stimulating and useful tool, and some product qualities could be recommended on basis of the results

Applications of AM

In this chapter, three strategic domains of Additive Manufacturing application are presented: tool making, medicine and transportation, with main benefits and results obtained by application of AM. Chapter presents some of on-going or already finished project from mentioned AM application fields

Defining authenticity in product design

Now, more than ever, we are told that 'authenticity' is an added value that customers want. The objective of this study is to determine what kind of authenticity is relevant to design, and whether it can be used as a standardised procedure to improve product design. In this study industrial designers were interviewed about their views on authenticity. The paper represents the combined result of a literature review and designer interviews about authenticity. Understanding the concept of authenticity, from a product development and industrial design point of view, is seen as an important way to understand how value relevant to customers may be added to products. Once products are on the market, authenticity can be seen as one of the factors that can determine their success or failure. Though authenticity may not necessarily be a guaranteed determinant of market success, it may well determine market failure. The ambiguousness of the concept of authenticity, however, suggests that a standardised procedure to secure the presence of authenticity within industrial design and product development may be an inadequate course of action

Remote assessment of intangible product experiences: A means to assist product development

There is a need from industry to better understand how customers perceive products. To develop products without understanding subjective perceptions and experiences is to risk that products with low customer value are devel-oped. As a consequence product target groups may be missed and intended market success may not occur. Traditional approaches for capturing subjective customer experiences are not sufficiently adapted and efficient. The aim of this research is to develop a new approach for remote assessment of visual and intangible product experiences that can assist the product design process where little current support is available. The comprehensive research question has been what characteristics may be favourable for capturing visual and intangible product experiences remotely. A software tool has been developed as part of the re-search in an attempt to facilitate the elicitation of subjective product experiences. The objective of the tool has been to imitate the visual and lucid characteristics of the real life assessment situation. The tool has been tested and evaluated in an iterative process. Remote and situated respondents have assessed the emerging tool and have found the approach attractive, intuitive and suitable for expressing their subjective product experiences towards visual representations of products. The value of this thesis lies in a better understanding of how customers perceive subjective product values. The implications concerns academia, industry as well as con-sumers

Remote assessment of intangible product experiences-challenges and implications

This paper presents two pilot studies done as part of the development of a future tool for remote customer assessment of intangible product experiences. There is a need from industry to better understand how customers perceive products in relation to other products. The aim is to provide industry and researchers with a new approach that is easier to work with and that is more reliable than existing traditional web surveys. In the first study a mock–up tool was emailed to international respondents. The second study was a situated usability study of a prototype version of the tool concerned with how the respondent interface might be developed further from experiences made in the first study. The findings of this paper present suggestions to how future remote product assessments could be made more efficient. The contribution of this paper is the characteristics and quality of a new assessment method. Results from qualitative respondent assessments of the tool indicated that this objective was achieved